Card input hopper

ABSTRACT

An input hopper with a roller-type friction picker and forced air inlet means which operates to separate sequentially stacked cards for tabulating or similar type machines. An improved hopper throat region designed is also described.

United States Patent inventor Norman Allen Cargill Wnrminster, Pa. Appl. No. 825,581 Filed May 19, 1969 .Patented June 15, 1971 Assignee The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy CARD INPUT HOPPER 1 Claim, 1 Drawing Fig.

0.8. CI 271/32, 271/41 Int. Cl. B6511 3/06 Field of Search 271/41, 32, 29, 61, 35

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,198,515 8/1935 Pitney 271/26 1,866,847 7/1932 Finfrock. 271/35 2,344,345 3/1944 Elliott 271/41X 2,806,696 9/1957 Bishop... 271/32 3,044,770 7/1962 Breuers 271/36 3,151,863 10/1964 Lohr 271/35X Primary Examiner-Joseph Wegbreit Attorneys-L. A. Miller, Q. E. Hodges, A. Soppand R. F.

Sandler ABSTRACT: An input hopper with a roller-type friction picker and forced air inlet means which operates to separate sequentially stacked cards for tabulating or similar type machines. An improved hopper throat region designed is also described.

5 I Z- -II H 4 fi z z I I I z 3 l4 117 4 CARD INPUT HOPPER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an improved card feeding device of the type employed with tabulating or similar type machines. More particularly, the present invention relates to a means to ensure that stacked cards will be serially ejected from an input hopper, one by one, in their stacking order.

Previous card feeding devices employed in such machines have included input hoppers with various geometric configurations, belt conveyors or roller-type friction pickers to advance 'the stacked cards out of the hopper, and various schemes employing suction or direct airflow on the stacked cards to aid in separating the cards or advancing the cards or both. In such apparatus, the cards, stacked one upon the other, are placed in a hopper magazine in such a fashion that the card intended to be first ejected from the hopper will be first to face the picker or conveyor. The picker or conveyor will then act to feed the cards singly from the bottom of the stack in a direction which is generally coplanar with the card to be ejected. The cards are fed from the hopper through a throat which is, in effect, a narrow slit in one of the hopper walls which is substantially aligned with the edge of the card. A guiding surface is usually provided on an edge of the slit to guide the card during the feeding operation to the throat.

The throat region, the subject of many varying configurations, has an opening which is usually designed to restrict passage to one card at a time. It has been found, however, that due to variations in card geometry, typeofpaper, dyes and environment, more than one card at a time may be forced to and along the guiding surface towards the throat, causing a jamming situation. If the throat is wide enough to accommodate more than one card, the resulting multiple card overlap will result in substantial information error when the cards are read for processing. There are, therefore, outstanding requirements for card feeding apparatus which is reliable without complexity. Such requirements have proved difficult to achieve in the past, however, the present invention does teach a configuration which does meet these requirements.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus of novel construction for card feeding.

Another object is to provide an improved card feeding mechanism for use in data processing systems.

A further object of the invention is to provide a simple yet reliable card feeding apparatus.

Still another object is to provide a card feeding apparatus with means to assure that only one card at a given time will be ejected out ofits hopper for processing.

A still further object of this invention is the provision of a card feeding apparatus employing both a friction picker and direct airflow to advance cards for ejection.

Another object of the invention is to provide a unique friction picker for the advancement of cards.

Still another object is the provision of an improved output throat region for an input hopper.

Other objects and advantages, as well as the exact nature of the invention, will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the consideration of the following disclosure of the invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention accomplishes the above-cited objects by providing a card feeding apparatus which is both simple and reliable.

Provided is an input hopper which is both operational and simple in terms of construction. While generally rectangular at all surfaces, various geometric modifications are made for the sake of perfecting performance. A small slit or throat is formed where one wall of the hopper and the bottom of the hopper converge, in a conventional fashion, being of sufficient length to accommodate the narrow dimension of the face of the cards used while being slightly wider than the paper thickness of the cards. l"

The hopper wall region immediately above the throat, usually called a throat knife, is shaped in such a fashion so as to form a guiding surface for the leading edge of the card while the wall of the hopper opposite the wall containing the throat is similarly shaped. The bottom of the hopper, also known as the face plate or bed, is basically a plate for the stack of cards to rest upon. The bottom has a depressed region under the throat knife.

A roller is provided which is composed ofa special material, the subject of later discussion, having a suitable coefficient of friction in terms of being able to move a card which is under applied pressure resulting from the stacking of other cards. Such a device is known as a friction picker. The cylindrical surface of the device is allowed to extend into the face plate so that it may drive the card which it faces through the previously described throat.

In order to help ensure that the cards will be separately driven, one by one, through the throat, the'face plate is provided with one or more openings through which forced air is made to flow directly against the card to be ejected.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings wherein like reference numbers refer to like parts, and to the figure in particular,-there is shown a side view of a card input hopper 10 constructed according to the teachings of this invention. The hopper has four generally rectangular walls 11, top 12 and bottom 193 composed of a suitably rigid material. The top is open in order to receive stacked cards 14 of the type, for example, used in tabulating machines. The height of the hopper 10 is made sufficient to accommodate about 2,000 cards.

A slit or throat 15 is formed between one wall 11 and the bottom 13 where the cards are to be ejected. A wall region 16 on the side above the throat 15 is inclined toward the throat at the same angle as region 17 on the opposite wall, preferably at approximately a 23 angle, in order to direct movement of the cards toward the throat and thus aid the card ejection process. The wall region 16 ends in a reversely angled lip portion 16a which defines a divergent portion of the throat 15.

The bottom 13 has a depression 13a, preferably in the form of a step, at the throat 15. The resulting throat width is made wide enough to accommodate the thickness of the card or paper to be ejected. A typical throat width is about 9 mils (0.009 inches), slightly larger than the thickness of the typical tabulating card which is about 7 mils (.007 inches).

A port [8 (or ports) is formed in the bottom 13 at a position to the rear of the step-type depression in order to form an entrance for forced air which then bears directly upon the side of the card facing the bottom 13, aiding the card ejection process. This forced air supply has three effects. It aids in the card separation process, it provides an air cushion for the card being transported to the throat, and it produces a Bernoulli effect on the leading edge of the card being transported.

The Bernoulli effect, under the above circumstances, is the resulting low-pressure region across the card in the area of the port or ports due to the airstream being diverted out from under the card. It occurs particularly in the area of the leading edge of the card because the edge is the closest diversion point for the airstream. The low-pressure region will tend to cause the downward movement of the card toward the throat,15. The depression 13a allows the card to bend downward. While a downward movement could also be obtained by drawing a vacuum on the leading edge of the card, such a system would have an attendant disadvantage in that the card would also be drawn towards the bottom, making if difficult to drive it through the throat. The forced air system avoids this problem. i The bottom 13 has a large slot to the rear of the port 18,

/ providing a region 200 where the periphery of the roller 20 of the roller-type friction picket 19 can protrude into the hopper in such a fashion that it can drive the card that it is then contacting towards and through the throat 15. Different card advancing mechanisms, such as a conveyor belt, could be utilized, but a friction picker is preferred. The roller is belt driven in a continuous fashion about axle 21 which is mounted in rotatable arm 22 which is, in turn, mounted on pivot 23. Such structure is, in effect, a clutch which is disengaged by producing a downward motion on arm 22, withdrawing roller 20 from the slotted region 200 and from contact with the bottom card. The roller 20 utilizes an outside layer of 57 durometer polyurethane or similar material as the friction material due to its unique properties for its application in that it provides an excellent coefficient of friction for cards of the type used under typical stacking pressure and it also exhibits an excellent life characteristic.

Referring now to the figure there is shown a detailed presentation of the throat design forming part of the present invention. Prior art designs often resulted in cards hanging up on the throat knife containing wall, caused pressure which was too high to allow picking of the cards or wedging of the cards against the bed plate. The figure design employs a combination of an inclined region 16 and a step depression 13a which results in the elimination of throat jams, and the like, with the resulting card tearing.

What has been disclosed is a card feeding device displaying many improved structural and performance characteristics. The feeding device has proved simple and reliable, employing a minimum of structure which results in the one by one ejection of stacked cards in serial fashion. It should be understood, of course, that the foregoing disclosure relates to only a preferred embodiment of the invention and that numerous modifications may be made therein.

lclaim:

l. A card feeding device comprising:

a hopper for receiving stacked cards, said hopper having a front and rear wall, said walls forming opposite ends of said hopper; 1

a base support member for said hopper for supporting said stacked cards, said support member being fixedly attached at one end to said rear wall;

driven means extending through a slot in said base support for contacting and advancing the cards in said stack seriatim;

said base support member having a stepped portion extending beyond and being spaced below said front wall forming a throat passage between said base support member and the front wall, the vertical step of which is located rearwardly of said throat passage and forwardly of said driven means, and said front and rear walls further including lower guide portions angularly disposed in the direction of card feed, said front wall having a lip extending from an edge of said front wall adjacent said throat passage forwardly of said front wall and at an upwardly diverging angle from said stepped portion; and

means for introducing air under pressure through said base support located rearwardly of the throat passage and said vertical step and forwardly of said driven means and directed against the bottom most card in said stack to both cushion said card from frictional drag and to produce a Bernoulli effect at the throat passage on the leading edge of said card to draw the card through said throat passage. 

1. A card feeding device comprising: a hopper for receiving stacked cards, said hopper having a front and rear wall, said walls forming opposite ends of said hopper; a base support member for said hopper for supporting said stacked cards, said support member being fixedly attached at one end to said rear wall; driven means extending through a slot in said base support for contacting and advancing the cards in said stack seriatim; said base support member having a stepped portion extending beyond and being spaced below said front wall forming a throat passage between said base support member and the front wall, the vertical step of which is located rearwardly of said throat passage and forwardly of said driven means, and said front and rear walls further including lower guide portions angularly disposed in the direction of card feed, said front wall having a lip extending from an edge of said front wall adjacent said throat passage forwardly of said front wall and at an upwardly diverGing angle from said stepped portion; and means for introducing air under pressure through said base support located rearwardly of the throat passage and said vertical step and forwardly of said driven means and directed against the bottom most card in said stack to both cushion said card from frictional drag and to produce a Bernoulli effect at the throat passage on the leading edge of said card to draw the card through said throat passage. 